We need to experience silence as a living presence in itself, which is primordial and primal, and then see all other things— now experienced deeply—inside of that container. Silence is not just an absence, but also, by that very fact, a presence. Silence surrounds every “I know” event with a humble and patient “I don’t know.” It protects the autonomy and dignity of events, persons, animals, and all things.
We must find a way to return to this place, to live in this place, to abide in this place of inner silence. Outer silence means very little if there is not a deeper inner silence. Everything else appears much clearer when it appears or emerges out of a previous silence. When I use the word appear, I mean that silence takes on reality, substance, significance, or meaning. Without silence around a thing, which is a mystery, nothing has meaning—or a meaning that lasts. It is just another event in a sequence of ever-quicker events, which we call our lives.
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